Thursday, December 11, 2014

Common Mime (Papilio clytia lankeswara)

Common Mime is a very common butterfly distributed in all climatic zones from lowlands to about 700m a.s.l. It occurs in two forms 'white' and 'brown'. White form [form dissimilis] mimics one of the poisonous 'Blue Tigers' (Tirumala (1)(2) or Parantica(1)(2)) and Brown form [form clytia] 'Crows' (Euploe spp.(1)(2)(3)(4)) Larval food plants are Litsea glutinosa [බෝ මී]Cinnamomum verum [කුරුඳු], Alseodaphne semecarpifolia [වෑවරණි], Litsea longifolia [රත්කෑලිය] Neolitsea cassia[Wild cinnamon/දවුල් කුරුඳු\කුඩු දවුල] and Cinnamomum dubium of the family Lauraceae